It's safer to be uninsured than to be on Medicaid

New research shows that Medicaid recipients have a 13% increased risk for dying while in the hospital than the uninsured. Medicaid patients also have longer, more expensive hospitals stays.

Researchers studied outcomes for nearly 900,000 patients across the United States who underwent one of eight major surgical procedures. They found that patients covered by Medicaid incurred a 97% increased risk for dying while in the hospital, and uninsured patients had a 74% increase in risk compared with privately insured patients.

So why does federal health care law will put 500,000 more North Carolinians on Medicaid?

France on the Cutting Edge of Discrimination

Give the French "credit"--they hatebothJews and Muslims. The French National Assembly passed a bill that would ban face veils. The vote wasn't even close (336-1). Now the bill goes to the Senate where it is expected to pass.

Western European countries can pass all the anti-hate speech laws they want--it doesn't make anything better when it comes to protecting various groups, especially when the government itself is taking steps to discriminate.

Re: Schieffer was John Edwards' lapdog

Schieffer was John Edwards' lapdog

Jeffrey Lord, writing over at The American Spectator's blog, offers a great gotcha moment courtesy of Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

Like all others in the mainstream media, Schieffer didn't think much of the adultery allegations against John Edwards during the 2008 presidential campaign. During an interview on the Don Imus show, Schieffer sounds far more gullible than a (supposedly) serious broadcast journalist of his stature has any right to be.

Imus asks if CBS had any plans to investigate further. Schieffer replies:

Well, you know I saw that this morning. I believe that -- I believe that's a story that we will be avoiding, because it appears to me that there's absolutely nothing to it. I'm told that another -- a man says that the child is his. I'm told that the woman who seems to be pregnant says it's not his. So I guess -- I guess we're going to pass on that. Unless you come up with some new information on this, Don.

Whitewashing Climategate

In recent months there have been three investigations into the "climategate" scandal and the the scientists and their exposed emails that generated it. All three of these investigations exonerated the scientists involved of any wrongdoing. What has not been widely reported is that two of these investigations were conducted by the universities that employ the scientists and that benefit from millions of dollars in research grants that these scientists generate, and the third was commissioned by one of those same universities. As climatologist Pat Michaels notes in today's Wall St. Journal, "[These] institutions receive tens of millions in federal global warming
research funding... Any admission of substantial
scientific misbehavior would likely result in a significant loss of
funding." The fact is that the conclusions of these investigations should be taken with the same level of seriousness as investigations into the health effects of smoking done by the tobacco industry. Michaels' WSJ article is a must read for anyone concerned about the integrity of this process.

Congratulations are in order

I want to congratulate Senator Richard Burr for making the Sierra Club hit list. The radical left wing environmental group that supports rationing energy, and imposing a death sentence on oil exploration in the gulf vis a vis Obama's 6 month moratorium, is running ads against Senator Burr for opposing meaningless and costly cap and trade legislation. When judging politicians it is important to take into consideration who their friends and enemies are. For example, it is meaningful information that the racist and anti-Semitic Black Panther Party supports President Obama. Clearly, being opposed by the radical environmental movement and groups like the the Sierra Club, who are hell bent on destroying the carbon based fuel industry, imposing massive increases in energy costs and stifling individual liberty in the process, is a badge of honor. My suggestion is that Senator Burr create his own ads boasting about their anti-endorsement.

Unions as parasites

Looking for a good way to describe the impact of uncheckedlabor unions? A blurb in the latest National Review offers an apt metaphor:

Lacking the evolutionary finesse that keeps most parasites from killing their host organisms, the American labor movement has driven the private firms that once employed its members offshore or into bankruptcy. Consequently, the only growth market remaining for the union movement is government. Republicans should be looking to limit this harmful influence on American public life, not to fortify it.

Yea, Progressives!

Norwegian Progressives, that is. Actually, these are the members of the Scandinavian country’s Progress Party, as profiled in the latest National Review:

The Progress party was founded in 1973, to advance the principles of classical liberalism. The party declares that its philosophy “starts with the democratic assumption that people are best placed to decide what is best for them.” This is radical, almost revolutionary stuff here in Scandinavia. Progress’s symbol is an apple: healthful, good for you. “An apple a day keeps the government away.” The symbol of the party’s youth branch is a thumbprint: a symbol of individualism. Everyone has a thumbprint, and everyone’s is different, unique.

As Jay Nordlinger points out elsewhere in his article, the other six parties in Norway’s parliament are all socialist, “to varying degrees,” including the Conservative Party, whose leader attended the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver.

The good news for Norwegians is that Progress holds the second-highest number of parliamentary seats, and party leaders hope to lead a coalition government with Conservatives after the 2013 elections.

National Review's Rob Long has fun with the Etheridge story

Regular readers of the dead-tree version of National Review know that Rob Long’s regular humor column, “The Long View,” often takes the form of fake memos involving Democrats.

In the latest issue, Long “unearths” a memo to members of Congress from “Your Democratic National Committee Media Advisory Team.”

One section should sound familiar to those who’ve followed Rep. Bob Etheridge’s recent exploits:

Q: What if I’m asked rude, insolent questions, like, “Do you support the Obama agenda?”

A: In the first place, stay calm. Try not to touch the person of the questioner, either in a friendly way (which will be misinterpreted) or in a more deliberate manner. Just listen quietly to the question, smile, and say, “The economy has fully recovered, and we’ve created more jobs than ever before …” Don’t try to engage the actual question — it’s a trap, designed to force you to make a gaffe, by saying either that you support the agenda or that you don’t support it, or, worse, that you support some things and don’t support others — none of which, by the way, is any business of your questioner. (Don’t say that last part.)